2012 NBC Sports Cycling Schedule

The TV network that began as OLN and became Versus is now NBC Sports.  I wasn’t certain what that would mean for cycling coverage.  Versus spoiled us for years with live coverage of the Tour de France and other major races.  In some cases the network resorted to next-day or even next-weekend coverage, but the last 1-2 hours of big races like the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix were always live.  With yesterday’s release of the 2012 NBC Sports cycling schedule, you can rest assured that there will continue to be a lot of good coverage, but many events that used to air live now will be delayed.  We will have to avoid our online cycling news outlets if we don’t want to learn the winners before the broadcasts.

Here’s the schedule with times converted to Central.  Back in the Versus days, cycling events often got moved around to accommodate other broadcasts.  Take this as a "best guess" and watch out for last-minute changes.

Tour Down Under Classic
January 15 at 2 p.m.

Tour Down Under
January 17-22 at 4:30 p.m.

Tour of Qatar
February 20 at 3:30 p.m.

Tour of Oman
February 26 at 2 p.m.

Paris-Nice
March 4 at 2 p.m.
March 5-9 at 3:30 p.m.
March 10 at 2 p.m.
March 11 at 10 p.m.

Critérium International
March 25 at 10 p.m.

Ronde van Vlaanderen
April 2 at 10:30 p.m.

Paris-Roubaix
April 8 at 6 p.m.

Flèche Wallonne
April 21 at 11:30 p.m.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège
April 22 at 11:30 p.m.

Tour de Romandie
April 24-27 at 4 p.m.
April 28 at 9 p.m.
April 29 at 9 p.m.

Amgen Tour of California
May 13 at 10 p.m.
May 14-18 at 4 p.m.
May 19 at 6 p.m.
May 20 at 5:30 p.m.

Critérium du Dauphiné
June 3 at 8 p.m.
June 4-7 at 3 p.m.
June 8 at 2 p.m.
June 9 at 12 a.m.
June 10 at 6 p.m.

Tour de Suisse
June 9 at 1 a.m.
June 10 at 8 p.m.
June 11-16 at 4 p.m.
June 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Tour de France
June 30-July 22, times TBD

USA Pro Cycling Challenge
August 20-25 at 3 p.m.
August 26 at 1 p.m.

Paris-Tours
October 7 at 6 p.m.